4 Tips to Get Your Kids Into Eating Well and Getting Fit

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Thinking about finally getting back on your feet and start getting fit again? One of the most enjoyable ways to lose weight is to get others involved. Whether it’s a friend that you compete with or family members that you can chat and interact with while you exercise, having people to lose weight with makes it far easier and more interesting. Unfortunately, when it comes time to get your kids into eating well and getting fit, things can get a little more complicated.

They might get frustrated, they might get lazy and they might slip into bad habits again after a bit of exercising. Here are some tips to get your kids to pick up healthier habits and lose weight together with you.

Go shopping together

One of the best ways to teach your kids about weight loss is telling them about calories and nutrients. The next time you go shopping together, try and point out things like calorie counts and how many nutrients each type of food gives. When they pick out sweets that they want to eat, teach them that those sweets are full of empty or bad nutrients and show them the numbers, then teach them about healthier alternatives such as fruits. Check out this guide from YourKidStable.com to learn more about nutrients and how to teach your kids about them.

Teaching kids about nutrients can be difficult especially if they’re quite young, but it can instill some excellent habits in them from a young age. Make sure you do everything you can to simplify and consider using learning tools to help your kids understand nutrients. Your children might also learn about food and different vitamins and nutrients in their lessons at school, and you can expand on this with your own knowledge.

Follow a fitness plan

Perhaps the best way to get your kids into eating well and getting fit is to follow a fitness plan. Sites like MomsIntoFitness.com are great for learning tips on how to stick to a diet plan and can give you plenty of useful ideas on how you can approach weight loss. You’ll want to get your kids involved when you write up the plan. So consider everything from the foods you eat to the exercises you do. And get them involved in the process. Kids love having input!

Make sure that the activities and foods in your fitness plan fit your kids. You don’t want them to feel bored or feed them foods they don’t enjoy. Because that’s a quick way to demotivate them. Try and find substitutes for the foods that are listed on the fitness plans. Or consider looking up fitness plans that are more suitable for kids.

Reduce screen time and increase active time

One of the biggest problems with today’s kids is that they spend far too much time lounging with electronics and video games. Check out this article from BecomingMinimalist.com for tips on how to reduce your child’s screen time. Then convert that time into something more productive and active. Some ideas are playing outside, going for bike rides together, or even shopping together.

Trying to drag your kids away from their screens can be hard. Which is why we’d recommend trying to do it at an early age so that they’re more likely to cooperate. You don’t want them to rely on electronics to stay in touch with friends. So try and convince them to get active and visit their friends at the park or at least go over to their homes instead of just chatting online. This is a great way to get all the kids in the neighborhood to be more active. So why not convince other parents to do the same?

Plan more family activities

Simply cutting screen time isn’t enough to get your kids more active. What you need to do is convince them to get outside, get active and do more interesting outdoor things. For instance, you could plan to go camping together as a family, you could go for regular bike rides or you could even go on frequent holidays to other towns and nearby destinations that aren’t expensive. Create a bucket list and do those things!

When planning family activities, make sure you try and add in a couple of fun and active sports. For instance, if you’re going camping, then bringing a soccer ball or even a badminton net is a great way to get your kids active. If you’re going to the beach, teach your kids how to swim and invite them into the water. Similarly, if you’re just going to a relaxing countryside location, try and get out for hikes and explore the scenery to get them moving.

Final words to get your kids into eating well and getting fit

If you plan to get fit again, this is a great opportunity to invite your kids for the ride. We’re experiencing an obesity epidemic and while the causes aren’t certain, it’s clear that kids are becoming more and more sedentary due to things like technology keeping them indoors instead of releasing them outdoors. Technology has enriched our lives in many ways. But it continues to be one of the biggest problems keeping our kids indoors.

Convincing your children to get outside more often can be difficult. However, it’s more easy if you teach them those good habits earlier on in their lives. It’s equally important to teach your kids why the sweets they’re eating are bad. And why nutrients matter and how they help our bodies. Of course, it’s a bad idea to deprive your children of these luxuries. So make sure you’re not being too rough on them.